


What Else Absence Makes

by Blue_Storm (Spillz)



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Break Up, F/M, Post-War, Zutara
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-03
Updated: 2016-05-03
Packaged: 2018-06-06 05:35:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,084
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6740626
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spillz/pseuds/Blue_Storm
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Katara is leaving the Fire Nation. Years of living with the prejudiced nobels and disproving servants have finally gotten to her. She's going home and has no intention of returning, it's just very hard to leave, when the man you love is the Fire Lord.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What Else Absence Makes

Katara’s life hadn’t exactly been easy, but she had never done anything as hard as this. Everything else she had done always came with the comfort that there would be something to look forward to once it was over, but not this. It had been hard to fight Azula, but she did it to save Zuko’s life. It had been hard to tell Aang about her and Zuko, but it had been to remain his friend. It had been hard letting Azula out of hospital, but it had been the only way to find Ursa. Katara could see no light at the end of this tunnel however, yes it would help stabilise the Fire Nation, yes it would mean she could live at home again, but nothing could make up for what she was going to lose. She was going to lose Zuko.

They’d kept their relationship a secret since the end of the war, only their most trusted friends had been told, they had known then that it would complicate an already tricky situation in the Fire Nation if it were revealed their ruler was involved with a foreigner. Six years later, after establishing the United Republic, visiting the south pole again, and finding Zuko’s mother, they got engaged. That had been their biggest mistake.

While the Fire Nation’s attitudes towards the other nations was better than it had been when the war ended, the idea of a Water Bending Fire Lady was ill received. Katara couldn’t leave the palace for fear of being recognised and having abuse hurled at her and Zuko’s advisors began pushing to arrange his betrothal with a more “appropriate” woman. They were too early, maybe in ten years it would have gone better, maybe even five would have been enough. Perhaps if they had eased the people into it by announcing their courtship first they could have gotten used to the idea, maybe if Katara had already been pregnant before the announcement Fire Nation honour would have forced people to agree, but that wasn’t the case. Who knows if anything could have made a difference, none of that mattered now.

Katara and Zuko had been fighting the court for a year now and getting nowhere, if anything the people were only getting more adamant she was unfit to rule. She wished there was another way but, she knew it was for the best, she had to leave him. Her things were packed and had already been loaded onto a ship bound to leave at sunrise. In front of her was the letter she had re-written and torn up more times than she could count, but now she had made her decision, this copy would not be destroyed.

 

> _Dearest Zuko,_

_If you are reading this then I did it, I actually managed to leave. Writing this now I’m not sure I can but I know that I have to and I think you know that too. We can’t risk destroying everything you’ve worked for to save your Nation for such a selfish reason as love._

_I am on a boat bound for the South Pole and I am begging you, please don’t visit. The reason I’m even writing instead of telling you is because I’m not strong enough to see you without forgetting everything else and staying. Spirits I wish I could stay. I wish you weren’t Fire Lord and we could just run off and get married in secret and live a boring life on a farm in the Earth Kingdom, no I wish we lived a hundred years in the future and nobody cared if you bent water, fire, or custard. I wish for a lot of things that won't happen._

_Now if I know you, and I think it's safe to say that I do, you are probably getting ready to sail to the Southern Water Tribe and make a big speech about never giving up without a fight hoping that I’ll run into your arms and let you carry me back to the Fire Nation. I won’t, I’ll stay in my igloo and pretend not to hear you, it’ll break my heart and yours but I’ll do it. We’ve been fighting it for so long Zuko and we have nothing to show for it._

_I don’t think I have the energy to fight any more._

_Katara_

She hadn’t signed “Love, Katara” on purpose, if Zuko didn’t think he had had a chance then it was less likely he would try to follow her, she really hoped he didn’t. She might have promised to break his heart but in reality she didn’t know if she could, Zuko had been broken so many times already.

She walked the passage that linked her room to the Fire Lord’s Chambers, it hadn’t officially been used since Zuko’s grandmother had been a young woman and none of the nobles really remembered its existence. She had been staying in Fire Lady’s chambers since before anyone even knew about her and Zuko so nobody really thought much of it, there had been some opposition recently but she had been living there so long it had seemed silly to move her out. She was moving out now though, Katara hated the idea of all those awful nobles getting their own way.

Silently, she crept into Zuko’s Antechamber. She considered leaving the scroll on the chair in the corner but, not wanting a servant to find it before Zuko did, she slid open the second door and walked into his bedroom. It almost pitch dark, Zuko had covered the windows last year because of all the assassination attempts but Katara knew her way around. She walked straight past where she knew the bed was and headed for Zuko’s desk, her hands bumped into it and she stayed perfectly still as she heard Zuko stir at the sound. When he didn’t wake Katara felt around blindly for the pile of important documents that he would check as soon as he woke up, she was centimetres to finding what she wanted when her hand knocked over an inkpot. Katara held her breath as it smashed on the floor, behind her she could hear Zuko jumping out of bed, lighting up the room with his bending.

“Katara?” he asked, and in that moment it was she could do not to turn around and run to him. Katara turned instead towards the door, striding confidently away from Zuko, so that he wouldn’t see how much she was crying.

**Author's Note:**

> Sad little Zutara oneshot, I might make this into a multi chapter fic but I'm not sure.  
> Hope you enjoyed reading!  
> Spillz


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